Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

"Infarct" is short for something like "infarction", isn't it?   Hmm, maybe not; here it says infarct is a "localized necrosis resulting from obstruction of the blood supply".   The American Heritage says it's "An area of tissue that undergoes necrosis as a result of obstruction of local blood supply, as by a thrombus or embolus."   So if infarct isn't short for infarction, where does it come from?   The Online Etymology Dictionary says the Latin infarcire means "to stuff into"; infarctus is the past participle, in English it became "infarction" in the 1680s and then as a medical term just "infarct" in the late 1800s (1873, it says here).

Tests coming back negative or positive just seem natural to me; "positive" means yes and "negative" no.   Where would it have to come from?   It seems too obvious ever to have been anything else.   Are you asking because you really know the answer and are hoping for an excuse to tell?   So tell, already; I'm interested.

I assume that the code words are made up, and IIRC they can mean different things at different hospitals and are chosen so as not to communicate anything obvious to easily panicked civilians.   For example, "code blue third floor" probably does not mean that a patient somewhere on that floor has become anoxic.